Vancouver Whitecaps captain Jay DeMerit suffered a complete rupture of his left Achilles' tendon in the opening minutes of Saturday’s opener vs. Toronto FC and could miss the rest of the season, according to The Province.

DeMerit, who started in central defense for the U.S. at the 2010 World Cup, left the game at BC Place in just the sixth minute after jumping for a header. He fell to the turf untouched.

DeMerit started 32 of Vancouver’s 35 MLS games last season despite dealing with Achilles' tendinitis. He said last month that there were “adverse effect(s)” from injections he’d received but that he expected to be ready for the Whitecaps’ first match. He had similar injections while dealing with a groin injury in 2011.

“It’s just been a little more sore lately than expected and we’re just trying to ease our way in,” DeMerit said last month. “We tried to jump back in but it got worse so now it’s just about doing it slowly and get on the bikes and going from there. This early on (in a season) you’ve got to err on the side of caution rather than fight through it and make it worse. It wasn’t supposed to take this long, but it is.”

DeMerit, an undrafted free agent from Green Bay, Wis., whose rise through the minor leagues of England to the Premier League and then the World Cup became the subject of a 2011 film, has been one of the faces of MLS since his return from the UK and a linchpin for the Whitecaps.

The 33-year-old is in the final year of a three-year deal. He’ll have surgery, according to The Province, and will be in a boot cast for four to six weeks. Another six to eight months of rehabilitation will follow.

Vancouver does have defensive reinforcements. Brad Rusin, 26, was signed over the winter and replaced DeMerit on Saturday. He spent 2009 to 2011 with the second-tier Carolina Railhawks before moving to Denmark, where he played for HB Koge in the Danish Superliga. The Whitecaps also added defender Johnny Leveron, 23, a Honduran Olympian who has played 22 times for his country’s senior national team.